Here is a quick quick quick recipe that looks complicated (but is not) and is gorgeous. This can easily wow your guests without a lot of work! Another plus is that you could adapt it for any holidays by coloring the whipped cream (red and green, pink and red, purple and yellow, etc.). So much fun!!!

I will be posting a new cake roll in the next few weeks as well as other treats that might include Oreos! I can’t wait!

Love you all ♥

P.S. A HUGE thank you to my splendid colleague and friend Anabel and her boyfriend who made a lot of wooden boards for my food photos (two of them are on the photos below!) ♥

Hope you all have a great day. If you didn’t find the special someone yet, I hope you celebrate the love of hearts, pink and cute stuff

Love you all <3

I’m working on some avatars for the “Nerdy Baker (science of baking)” section coming up on the blog! Which one would be the greatest teacher, the owl or the ice cream? And what questions do you want me to answer?

Thanks for liking and sharing and trying them yourself! I love to see what you come up with!

Today, I have a delicious, relatively easy but time consuming, dessert. I did have some problems with these though :

First, I used this cheesecake pan. It’s not the best tool to do these except if you have a cookie cutter of the exact same size of the cups. You can see on my pics that the brownies aren’t the good size so the mousse found a way to the bottom!

Second, the mousse recipe I used had no cream and it separated a little. There was cherry juice dripping out of the pan into my fridge! I don’t know if I did something wrong with the recipe or if it’s suppose to be that way. I did substitute the egg whites of the original recipe by meringue powder, but I’m not sure it contributed to this problem.

Finally, I wouldn’t use the same chocolate topping as I did, it’s cute, but it would be as cute with a malleable topping instead of this hard-rock chocolate. Why you shouldn’t do this? Because there is no elegant way to eat the mousse with it (trying to cute the chocolate your mousse is crushed and destroyed!)

Oh except if you take out the chocolate first and then eat the mousse!

On the bright side, there is a very great discovery with these mousse : the brownies recipe is A-MA-ZING. We ate the leftovers with apple and raspberry coulis, simply delicious!

Browned Butter Brownies (I used half of this recipe)
Recipe from Something Swanky

2 1/2 sticks salted butter

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

Cherry mousse (I used half of this recipe)
Recipe adapted from Williams-Sonoma

1 1⁄4 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

2 tablespoons cold water

1 jar maraschino cherries, drained (keep 1/8 cup of juice)

1/8 cup maraschino cherry juice

1/8 cup water

4 teaspoons meringue powder

4 tablespoons warm water

1⁄4 teaspoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons superfine sugar (I used granulated)

Chocolate icingI propose you use this recipe. But if you want to do exactly what I did (with the mess it creates when you eat it!) here is the recipe :

4 squares (4 ounces) semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons butter

Decorations

Pink chocolate

For the brownies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare a 9×13 (use a smaller pan if you do half the recipe) baking dish by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and lining with parchment paper leaving an overhang on both sides.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Stir constantly until butter has reached a light brown color and little “bits” have formed.

Pour the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar and cocoa powder and beat until smooth, almost creamy.

Add the salt, water, and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each addition.

Add the flour and mix well. Batter will be very thick.

Use a spatula to spread batter in the pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes (about 15-20 minutes for half the recipe) until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Using the parchment paper overhang, lift the brownies and let cool on a cooling rack.

For the mousse

In a small bowl, combine the gelatin with the cold water to soften.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm 1/8 cup water with 1/8 cup maraschino cherry juice to just below the boiling point. Remove from heat, add the gelatin and stir until it dissolves.

Puree the maraschino cherries in a food processor until smooth.

Whisk the gelatin mixture into the puree until blended. Let cool for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the meringue powder and the 4 tablespoons water until foamy. Add the lemon juice and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until stiff, glossy peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the cherry mixture.

For the chocolate icingIn a bowl, melt the semisweet chocolate and the butter over a boiling pot of water.

For the decorations
Line a cookie sheet with either parchment paper or waxed paper. In a double boiler, melt the pink chocolate. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a tip #2. Pipe 12 hearts (or more). Let cool.
** You could also top with a maraschino cherry

Assembly

Line each cups of the cheesecake pan with waxed paper.

Cut out 12 rounds in the brownies (I used the removable bottom of a cup and cut all around it with a knife) and place them inside the prepared cups.

Divide the maraschino cherry mousse evenly in each cups. Let cool in the fridge for about 4 hours.

Pour the chocolate icing evenly over the mousses.

Place a pink heart in the middle of each mousse. Chill again until set.